stabs in the chest, that's all you give me
by Misty Reeyus
Summary: Whatever this thing with Velvet is, it's not love. [Velvet/Magilou, fuckbuddies with feelings]


a softer world prompt #4: i don't know what the fuck true love even is but i do want to hang out with you for basically the rest of my life. (let's hang out - TO THE DEATH)

* * *

Magillanica never knew love.

Not from her parents, and not from the circus troupe. Not from Melchior either, even if for a while there she actually believed otherwise, actually believed she was something more to him than just another tool to be forged. But that was her mistake, and it was a mistake that left her with a heart broken more than a hundred times over, that turned her into a flimsy shell of a person who doesn't even remember what it's like to feel _anything_ anymore.

Magillanica never knew love, and when all her other emotions burned out, so too did she.

Magilou was born from the ashes.

* * *

Magilou still doesn't know love, and her other feelings are so mangled and damaged she doesn't know what to do with their remains. All she knows is how to fake her own twisted version of cheer, foolish grins overwhelming her face instantly on command, jokes and barbs rolling off her tongue like clockwork. Part of her realizes she's being a bitch, but nobody ever taught her how to be anything but, and besides, she doesn't actually care.

Magilou is broken, utterly and completely.

So whatever this thing with Velvet is, it's not love.

It's sex, just sex, and it's usually _intense_. Velvet is _awful_ whenever she has Magilou at her mercy, doing whatever she wants and doing it as roughly and relentlessly she can. Sometimes blindfolds are even brought out, or whatever fabric is on hand becomes a gag that's shoved into Magilou's mouth, and she's teased and tormented until the world fades away and pure, overpowering sensation is all that's left.

Magilou is broken, and she can't be fixed. But even if only for a moment, sometimes, Velvet can fuck her so hard, mess her up so bad, that she can briefly catch a glimpse of those emotions she's long since lost.

Even if only for a moment, sometimes, Velvet can make her feel alive.

* * *

Their arrangement is mutually beneficial, of course. Velvet doesn't do anything for anyone unless it serves her own goals, but Magilou could see that she needed an outlet for her anger and hatred and frustration from Day One. It was why she propositioned Velvet in the first place—the daemon girl clearly had something to gain in having her own personal punching bag. Velvet went with it then and is still going with it now, but true to form, she only ever takes what she needs and doesn't linger a second longer, always packing up and leaving the moment she's been satisfied.

Until once, some few nights after their escape from Innominat, Velvet stays.

"I'm tired tonight," Velvet sleepily mumbles in explanation when Magilou points out to her just how unusual it is. Still butt-naked, she rolls on the mattress to sidle up beside Magilou, so that they're facing each other with heads resting against the pillow. "And I just can't be bothered to head back right now."

Typical cold-and-callous Velvet. She's always got to have it her way.

"Now, don't you try to hide your true desires behind your foul words, Missy!" Magilou tosses on a cheeky grin, swooning melodramatically. "Oh, how I've waited for this day! You're finally here to accept my warm embrace!"

With that, she launches her arms out, slipping them around Velvet's middle and tucking her into her grasp. Velvet visibly tenses up, and Magilou fully expects her captive to shove her off any second now, possibly even take back what she said about being tired and just up and leave anyway.

But instead, Velvet simply relaxes again, her muscles loosening against Magilou's arms.

"Yeah yeah, whatever," she says, fluttering her eyes shut, apparently too tired to even protest. "Just go to sleep already."

Velvet konks out mere minutes after that, if her slowed breathing and surprisingly peaceful expression are any indication. But Magilou can't go traipsing off to dreamland that easily, not when her arms are still wrapped around Velvet, not when she suddenly has no idea what to do about this intimacy that she only created as a joke.

Velvet is soft flesh over sharp curves, but right now, that's not what Magilou finds interesting. Scooting in closer, she retrieves her arm that's draped over Velvet's waist and reaches up to cup Velvet's cheek. It's a gesture far more gentle than anything they've ever done with each other in the entire course of their nighttime excursions, and if there was any doubt in Magilou's mind that Velvet was asleep before, it's gone now, because the girl actually _leans into_ the touch with a smile.

Within Magilou's chest, something warm and almost _comforting_ blooms.

Magilou doesn't care. Or at least, she _shouldn't_ care. But the world is changing, and so is Velvet, and maybe Magilou is too, because now a thought strikes her. A strange, almost horrifying thought, one that doesn't make sense but that she can't deny as it rings loudly in her head and beats hard within her heart:

 _I want to hold you like this forever._

* * *

After the final battle, they all agree to go their separate ways.

Laphicet—no, no, he's Maotelus now—will remain in the Empyrean's Throne, dedicating himself to fulfilling his treasured Velvet's dream. But the mission that kept all the rest of them together is over now, so once they've descended from the stairs to the grass, four sets of footprints take off in entirely different directions.

Magilou waits until she's entirely out of sight of any of the others before ducking behind a few trees, then turns around to stare up at the sky. To wherever Velvet now rests in some place she can't see.

"…You didn't tell us what you were planning," Magilou whispers, surprising herself with how choked up she sounds to her own ears. "Not that I would have expected you to, of course. My fault for not being able to guess it sooner myself."

The words taste like loss on her tongue, and a distinct pang shoots through her chest so brutally it feels like it's splitting her apart. Her eyes start to burn, leaking from the sheer force of those feelings that she'd thought were long, long gone, and that's when Magilou knows for sure.

This is pain, and it's proof that Magilou wanted Velvet to live on.

This is pain, and it's proof that Magilou wanted Velvet to be with _her_.

"You can't break a heart that's already broken," Magilou echoes, scoffing, her throat clogging up. She's as utterly vile a fence-sitter as ever, laughing and crying at the same time, overflowing with a haphazard mix of both sardonic chuckles and heaving sobs.

"Huh. Guess that means mine ain't fully broken just yet."


End file.
